Officials remind residents to secure dogs after man was bitten

Published: Saturday, January 4, 2014 at 09:00 AM.

Area officials are reminding residents to make sure their dogs are properly secured after three dogs got loose and bit a neighbor.

Three pit bulls, one female and two males ranging in age from 2 to 3 years old, got out of their fence at Quail Ridge Road Sunday morning and then got into a neighbor’s fence at Huntington Green Drive.

According to Alan Davis, director of Onslow County Animal Services, the dogs were in a pen and when Willie Mae Black, who was taking care of them for her son, went to take one of the dogs out of the pen. One of the dogs jumped the fence and ran down the street. The other two followed.

The dogs then ran into the neighbor’s fence, where a man tried to shoo them out and got bit. The man’s dog, the breed of which Davis did not know, also was bit. The man, Davis said, declined treatment for possible injury. It was not immediately clear if the dog was injured.

The animals, Davis said, are in quarantine at Animal Services since it was unclear if they are up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations.

The female pit bull also was involved in a May 7, 2012, incident when a Jacksonville woman was bit.

Area officials are reminding residents to make sure their dogs are properly secured after three dogs got loose and bit a neighbor.

Three pit bulls, one female and two males ranging in age from 2 to 3 years old, got out of their fence at Quail Ridge Road Sunday morning and then got into a neighbor’s fence at Huntington Green Drive.

According to Alan Davis, director of Onslow County Animal Services, the dogs were in a pen and when Willie Mae Black, who was taking care of them for her son, went to take one of the dogs out of the pen. One of the dogs jumped the fence and ran down the street. The other two followed.

The dogs then ran into the neighbor’s fence, where a man tried to shoo them out and got bit. The man’s dog, the breed of which Davis did not know, also was bit. The man, Davis said, declined treatment for possible injury. It was not immediately clear if the dog was injured.

The animals, Davis said, are in quarantine at Animal Services since it was unclear if they are up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations.

The female pit bull also was involved in a May 7, 2012, incident when a Jacksonville woman was bit.

According to the bite report from the incident, Helen Mull, 52, was walking her dog and walked past Black’s house. The pit bull came off the property to attack her dog and she was bit in the left arm while trying to protect her dog.

“(Dogs) need to be kept in a secure fenced in yard that is high enough that they cannot jump or placed on a tether or tie up that is cemented. You can cement them deep in the ground,” Davis said, explaining that tethers allow the dogs to get exercise while ensuring they are secure on their owners’ property.

Chapter 4 of Onslow County ordinance prohibits animals from running at large and being a public nuisance by disturbing the rights of, threatening the safety of or damaging a member of the general public, or interfering with the ordinary use and enjoyment of another person’s property. Jacksonville, Holly Ridge, Richlands and Swansboro each has similar ordinances.

Black, who said she is willing to pay for the medical and veterinary bills from Sunday’s incident, recommends that people in similar situations put their dogs in the house when trying to clean the pens to prevent their dogs from getting loose.

The dogs, she said, will not be coming back to the house.

Mull said she is glad that it is going to be safe to walk her dog again.